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Thursday, June 02, 2011

Pew Center Video: The State of Children's Dental Health

More than 16 million U.S. children go without even basic dental care each year. Pew's report card, The State of Children's Dental Health: Making Coverage Matter, assesses states' ability to serve insured and soon-to-be-insured children. In this year's 50-state report card by the Pew Children's Dental Campaign, 27 states earned grades of an A or B, while 23 states and the District of Columbia received a C or lower grade. However, the 2011 grades for 22 states were higher than their 2010 grades, revealing that even in a time of fiscal distress, dental health policies can be improved.

As you can see, I am not too fond of this report. But, Pew is a large, well-funded organization and one with an agenda to promote dental therapists as a way to improve access to dental care for underserved populations. This report must be viewed with this in mind.